Electrical Grid - Power Consumption and Production

Information based on Alberta Electric System Operator website

Notes, Explanations and Comments follow the graphs.

Total Available Generating Capacity

Snapshot of Actual Percentage by type Feb 25, 2008

Snapshot of Actual Percentage by type March 1, 2008

Notes, Explanations and Comments

The first chart shows the total available generation capacity in Alberta as of March 1, 2008.

Note that a good portion of the Gas Generation is Co-Generation. What this means is that large industrial users that require both heat and electricity have combination systems to provide both and the extra energy is available to the Grid.

The second and third chart is a snapshot of typical operation on 2 different days (picked at random) note the following.

• On the February chart, the wind was not really doing anything whereas on the March chart, the wind was at near installed capacity.
• Typically, the power that we use is approximately 2/3 from coal, with the remainder coming from the other sources.
• The coal generation remains the base source mainly because it does not ramp up or down quickly or efficiently.
• The gas and hydro electric power can ramp up or down much more quickly and are therefore used to adjust the generation capacity to match the demand.
• Since, as the charts show, the wind is not always available, there needs to be enough fuel fired capacity available to supply the demand on the system.
• In looking at the demand charts, we also see that a battery-less grid tied solar system is not going to be producing power at some of the key times.
• Battery based solar grid tied or battery based solar backup systems have the advantage of being able to be programmed or operated so that they will use the battery power at the peak times to reduce the loading on the Grid.
• Adding Geo-Thermal heating systems will increase the demand on the Grid at the worst time – i.e. when it is cold and dark. While Geo-Thermal may be an efficient way to heat, given the present Alberta Power Grid situation, it would add stress to the system and increase the price at the peak times. Also, given the shortage of transmission capacity, it would not be advisable to add a lot of Geo-Thermal heating until the transmission capacity is increased.
• Battery-less Solar Grid tied systems can help reduce the amount of gas burned year round during the day, but they will not help in reducing the amount of coal burned at all.
• Solar Grid tied systems can help to reduce the summer peak load since the production roughly follows the peak demand.
• As a society we need to really work on reducing our electricity consumption, especially at the peak times. It is not enough to just call for cleaner energy production, we really need to cut back our energy usage.
• With the present demand on the system and the growth occurring in Alberta, we also need increased transmission capacity to transmit the electricity to the points of utilization.
• Ideally, we would have more distributed generation which must be capable of being available able to supply energy during peak demand times. Large, battery based solar systems can be part of this solution if they are set up properly.